Kamila Andini delicately explores the difficulties of being a 16 year old girl in a society that thinks it knows what’s best for you, without giving us any easy answers.
Yuni (Arawinda Kirana in her first major role) doesn’t really know what she wants out of life. She likes purple, does well at school and likes music and hanging out with her friends. She’s confident, full of energy and quite happy with her lot. But of course in a conservative society, the choice isn’t really hers and soon these forces start to weigh her down.
Her school, which has been something of a refuge, is taken over by the Islamic Club and forced virginity tests (for girls only of course) and the banning of music is proposed. Her smiling teacher wants her to go on to college but she’ll need a scholarship for that which means topping her class and remaining unwed. This last one might seem odd but during the course of the film she has three proposals from seemingly eligible men.
In other hands this might be an ‘issue’ film where we see the extremes of patriarchal oppression but Andini treats every character with an even and empathetic hand, recognising that it is not the monsters that limit us but smiling conformity. Yuni’s plight is not that bad – she has a lot going for her, including parents (albeit absent ones) who will support any choice she makes. It’s the pressure of peers and adults though and her own inability to know what she wants (which is pretty normal for 16) that are the obstacles.
The gentleness of the treatment of Yuni’s story is sometimes frustrating and occasionally renders her as unlikeable, particularly in her treatment of the younger Yoga (Kevin Ardillova). There is merit in it – she is not perfect and a resolution is not simple – but it makes it harder to empathise with her and I really struggled to understand the nuances of the ending. A metaphor maybe? An embracing of purple which means independence perhaps? It left me dissatisfied but wishing for more for girls like Yuni.
Have you seen this film? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
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